Amazon Offers Up “Greatest Hits” as Free Apps of the Day: World of Goo, Swiftkey, Pac-Man and More

If you don’t frequent Amazon’s free app of the day, today might be the day to stop back by. The online retailer is offering up a handful of their greatest hits, all for free as we head into the weekend. You’ll see titles like World of Goo ($2.99), Swiftkey ($3.99), PAC-MAN ($2.99), and Sprinkle ($1.99).

Of course, you’ll need Amazon’s Appstore in order to get any of these, and may even need to keep it installed to use them. That’s unfortunate, but part of the game.

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rohat

i don’t get it, what’s so bad about having to keep the amazon app store on your phone? does it end up costing money or something?

rekem

It sucks up resources because every single time you open an app from the Amazon Appstore it authenticates itself with the Appstore app. The final straw for me, though, was the Appstore App itself constantly throwing update notifications in my face. I’m cautious about updating apps, and generally refrain from doing so if the app is working well, unless there’s a must have feature in the update. Well, the Amazon Appstore would hound me, sometimes multiple times a day, wanting me to update it, and wouldn’t let me alter this behavior. Completely obnoxious programming, so I uninstalled.

I had the Amazon App Store when it first came out, but I hate having apps bought on different stores and needing to keep the App Store app on my phone just to use them. I’d rather pay a few bucks and just buy it from the Play Store.

ScoobySnack

At least now you can remove duplicate apps from the “Cloud” list within the Amazon Appstore app. I used to get confused as hell when I bought apps in both stores and then some wouldn’t update.

EvanTheGamer

Already own about 85% of the free Amazon apps. Oh well.

Aaron

I deleted the Amazon App Store from my devices. My job takes me out of cell service range for over a week at the time. Not being able to play my games during that time is unacceptable. The Amazon App wouldn’t let me use the apps because it couldn’t dial home. I can’t say all apps there are like this, but the ones I tried to use were.

EvanTheGamer

After I finally formatted my G-Nex and cleanly flashed the newest Shiny ROM build, my device works great again(the speediness has returned!). With that said, I haven’t re-installed the Amazon App Store, and probably won’t for awhile. It could have been causing some of the slowdown of my G-Nex, but who knows really.

KleenDroid

Based on my own testing I don’t think it does. However I do Greenify it along with a few other things.

nina

greenify is the ish. i think it’s a must have app- i should probably do the donation version..but well the free version works for fine for me at the moment.

umataro42

I’m also on Shiny ROM, but found that the Amazon Store kept force closing after updating to 4.3, so it might not be compatible.

After that, I uninstalled it, and bought the free apps I was using off Google Play (WeatherBug Elite, Wifi File Explorer Pro, and Fruit Ninja Puss in Boots), except for SoundHound where I went with the free ad-supported version.

Because the Amazon Store app kept force closing, the apps I got from them wouldn’t work, and since I didn’t pay for them the first time, I didn’t feel like I was getting ripped off for having to pay for the same app twice. And now I get the updates right away too.

Detonation

For the couple bucks it costs for some of these apps, I’d rather just buy them through the play store so I can get timely updates and not have to deal with the Amazon app store. The only reason I have it still is for Angry Birds Ad Free. I can’t believe there’s no ad free version in the play store.

The Phenom

Yes I can agree there. Like with Drag racing the play store gets updated fater than Amazon plus no ads that the only reason I keep a few apps on Amazon.

thedonxr

Tanqueray is killing me…

KleenDroid

Luckily I don’t know what you are taking about.

Roms with ad killing abilities are your friend.

Andy Stetson

I pretty much use the free app of the day to see if its truly worth buying it from Play, instead of just having 15 minutes to test it.

BSweetness

I often do the same.

KleenDroid

Great idea.

Jackie Chen

So far swiftkey is still working after deleting the amazon app store, can’t say the same for shazam though.

Eric Rosario

I was a huge fan of Amazon coming into the “app” business but their apps SUCK! I found them to always be outdated and updates come way after Google pushes updates. If you want timely updates I’d opt for direct purchases from Google. I ended up deleting Amazon app store from my phone & re-buying all my apps.

BobButtons

I’d be okay with paying it to support the developer if it’s an app I cared that much to own, not to mention all the benefits you mentioned.

BSweetness

I think a lot of it has to do more with the developers than with Amazon. I have a few apps that I obtained through Amazon’s Free App of the Day program that seem to get updated at least every couple of weeks, in not more often (PrinterShare, TuneIn Radio are two of the major ones). A lot of developers are slower to update their apps offered through Amazon because Amazon can up and offer their app for free or for a lower price than they’re selling it for on Google Play, so there’s less of an incentive for them to make sure things get updated regularly there.

The developers would prefer that people get the apps through Google Play, so many focus their attention there and try to make sure that’s the more desirable place to get the app.

Detonation

Amazon has to approve each update I think, whereas devs can just push them straight out to the play store.

BSweetness

While that’s likely true, the fact that some apps are updated almost constantly on Amazon shows me that it’s more the developers than Amazon who are often the reason for the lack of app updates there.

And I don’t blame the developers for that one bit. I’d be inclined to do the exact same thing. They have far more control, can reach a wider audience, and can make more money through Google Play. The Kindle Fire line is the only reason any of them bother with the Amazon App Store, and if people with a Fire want timely app updates, they purchased the wrong product.

duke69111

I would agree with that. It seems like everytime I open TuneIn there’s an update, which I appreciate.

Paul

That’s some shady devs. They should not offer the app on Amazon at all especially if it’s a paid app.

Mark P.

Which devs do this? I’d like to stay away from their apps in any app store.

mujuboo

Yes, I’d like to know a list of apps that get updates faster on Google Play vs the Amazon Appstore. Thanks.

Higher_Ground

At the same time, I guess it’s a good way to test out apps. If you like the app then you can buy it on google play. 15 minutes just isn’t enough time to feel out most apps.